The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry

Dellaria Wells is a fire witch who has lived in the slums of Leiscourt all her life. She often gets herself into trouble and has seen the inside of the local jail cells several times over. On her way to earn some rent money, she discovers a well paying job being a bodyguard, and manages to secure the position. Unfortunately for poor Delly, she finds herself actually needing to protect her charge or risk not getting paid. What is a Wells to do?

The Ruthless Lady’s Guide to Wizardry by C. M. Waggoner is a book that is personally very hard to review since my personal feelings about this book do not align with my objective view of the book. I do not feel like I can say I personally recommend it; however, I do see reasons that other readers might enjoy it. So, with that in mind, I will simply present what I like, what I objectively feel about it, and what I personally didn’t like about this novel. Hopefully all of that information will help you know if this book sounds interesting to you.

The main thing I really enjoyed about this book is the magic system. Waggoner doesn’t spend a lot of time explaining or detailing  how magic works in Delly’s world, but by the end of the novel, the reader has a really good understanding of how magic is used and learned. There is some science to the magic in how it is controlled, and it is used in place of science. Along with that, there are schools to become better at magic even if not everyone can afford to do so. Waggoner really does an excellent job developing magic naturally throughout the story.

I also really enjoyed the chapter titles. Waggoner utilizes the chapter titles to add humor as well as to tease upcoming events to the reader. Some of the titles are quite long, but not in a bad way. I honestly laughed at several of them and had a few I thought were very clever. Most books I’ve read have no chapter titles or very short titles. I found these longer more detailed titles to add lots of personality to the story.

As for Waggoner’s writing style, I find myself having some mixed feelings. Her actual writing style is one that I really enjoy. It is smooth and easy to follow. There is personality in her writing as well as good storytelling. My only problem with it, however, is the historical feel she added to it. There were many phrases and words that she used to incorporate the historical setting that didn’t sit right with me. I think that it could appeal to readers who really like historical based settings, dialog, and culture. It just wasn’t for me. It took me several chapters to get used to the style of it and for reading to be more natural.